I stumbled on these sock ponies from Philomena's Friends -- reasonably priced (most are $25), great colors, and adorable!

About the owner
The shop owner, Pam, told me "I grew up with horses! My Grandad had the first Lipizzans in the US and started the registry so I grew up with dressage! You're really bringing back the memories for me..."

How to win
To enter, all you have to do is comment on my blog or my Facebook page with a description of your favorite "horse toy" of your youth --and a way for me to contact you if you win. My favorite toy was was "Marvel the Mustang" -- a bouncy horse that I quickly outgrew to my dismay. What was yours?
Disclaimer: I can only ship to the U.S.

34 comments:

I loved (and still do) my breyer horse collection. I also had Clip clop. He's a plastic bouncy horse with 4 springs holding him to a frame...and of course he clip-clopped and neighed. I got him when I was 5 and he hung out in my grandparents barn for 25 years and then when my oldest turned 2 they rehabbed him and gave him to her. He got new handles, new springs, a deep cleaning and the frame got a paint job. Now Clip Clop is entertaining a second generation of horse lovers.

My favorite toy was the rocking horse my grandfather built for me. It was pretty small and I outgrew it by the time I turned four, but I think it fostered my lifelong obsession with horses. It had my name engraved on the seat, and now lives proudly in a corner of my living room.

I had some Breyers I loved, but my favorite was a set I got of 20 or 30 small horse figurines, and it came with a big poster of all the breeds. I poured over the poster and memorized breeds I could hardly pronounce and spent hours constructing makeshift stalls and paddocks for the horses. Now I am dying to figure out the manufacturer. Google is telling me it is either Safari LTD or Schleich, but I haven't found the exact ones I had.

We had horses that were similar to the Breyers. There was a beautiful palomino...of course, doesn't every young girl have a palomino? It was great for trying to give my Barbie a ride, although Barbie didn't bend in the right way to make that easy. These stuffed horses are adorable and I would love a chance to win. Thank you.

My favorite horse toy was a plastic Ppalomino with a neck that went up and down that my Barbies were forced to ride - same era as Denise at Autumn Sky...Barbies were not built for riding in my day :) But I grew up dreaming of the day I would own a Palomino - instead, I own a lovely Black and White Warmblood Cross! Happy Holidays! My email address is: kwoodboss@aol.com

My dad made my sister and I felt saddles with "stirrups" made of seat belt material. We spent hours on the arm of the couch practicing our rising trot and perfecting our positions. alyssafreden@hotmail.com

My family went to visit my Uncle Jack at Christmas time when I was about 6 years old. He was an amazing artist and craftsman. I still have some of his work. He knew I was horse crazy and decided to create a real "horse" for me. He built a wood frame almost like a saw horse but wider and secured an old saddle on it. Then, he made a horse head and tail out of cardboard. In my imagination I had a real horse to ride. I sat on that horse for hours everyday while we were there. I named him Strider! When it came time to leave I desperately wanted to take Strider home with us but was not able. One of my fondest childhood memories. alexequineservices@yahoo.com

Super sock ponies!!!My favorite toy was 10in tall soft My Little Ponies. I have no idea where my parents founds them but they are great, I still have them. My dolls could ride them and they were huggable. What else could be better. They also played nicely with my smaller My Little Ponies and my Barbies :) equinpilot@aol.com

My Cabbage Patch Kids pony that I named Sid. He is white with gray spots (maybe that's what started my love of Appaloosas?). Santa brought him for me one year and I played with him all the time. He came with a little saddle and bridle. I would set jumps up for him using old wrapping paper tubes. After a long career of being my "show pony," he was retired to the shelf pasture. But he has found a second career with my horse-crazy three-year-old niece. She sleeps every night with Sid and Bullseye from Toy Story. Needless to say, I can't wait until she's old enough to ride with me. love.appys@yahoo.com

My favorite horse toy isn't actually mine. My great grandfather built a wooden rocking horse for his kids to play on. When they all grew up, my grandfather took it for his kids to play on. After all my aunts and uncles moved out, the rocking horse was put in storage and forgotten for many years. My dad found it in a storage building when I was 4, he brought it home, cleaned it up, painted it my favorite color and gave it to me for Christmas. I named him Rocky, and I played with him for years. I had blankets and tack for him, we "went to shows", I even found an old sports metal and pretended that we won the Olympics :) Rocky was retired to my room as a decoration until my niece was born. My dad recently repainted it my nieces favorite color and she will be getting Rocky this year for Christmas, she's almost 3. All together, Rocky has payed with 4 generations in 3 states over a period of 70+ years and continues to be a beloved first "pony". I can't wait until Christmas. hjdiva@yahoo.com

Alyssa, your dad FTW in the Creative "Fake Horse" department - I would LOVE to have had a saddle like that!

Alexa and Stacey, I always wanted a Marvel or a bouncy horse on springs, but never got either one. I had to settle for begging rides on my friend's spring horse and she was pretty stingy about it (she was an only child and very spoiled - to make matters worse, eventually she got a REAL horse, too. Just kill me now, huh?).

I did have a wonderful Breyer horse collection, though, and a lot of other random horse figurines. My favorite Breyer was my Palomino 5-Gaiter. I used to "rub him down" with baby oil and that made him really shiny. He'd get leg wraps made out of tissues and Scotch tape, little saddles made out of felt and shoe-string bridles. Pretty funny that he was my favorite because I only rode H/J, but there you go! My other favorite horse toy was my Lone Ranger "Silver." He was wonderful because he had fully-jointed legs and could make lovely jumps over the book fences I'd set up. The Lone Ranger doll was great, too, because he also was fully-jointed and could actually sit properly. The tack was even appropriate and as I'm sure you know, that is practically unheard-of with toys! ("We'll just throw some random straps on the horse's head and call it good.")

I have two. The first one was when I was in preschool. My friend and I were circus bareback riders for Halloween I guess...? And we had some related event at school. Our mom's made us these nicely done horse heads mounted on sticks (like a broom stick) and those were our steeds while we dressed in pink tutus. After that I liked the Palomino Barbie horse and my sisters Black one. I still have both Barbie horses. I just found them in a closet 2 weeks ago. The black (my favorite) still had polo wraps on that I had made out of yarn! I kind of want to play with them right now even though I'm in my 30s.

I would love one of these for my daughter! My favorite toy growing up would have to be my Breyer collection-they had saddles and bridles, and I would set up all sorts of scenes for them. My email is lauren.admire@gmail.com

My favorite horse toy when I was little were my Breyers! My grandmother always got me one or two for my birthday and for Christmas each year. I could always tell it was a Breyer by pushing the front of the wrapped package (the plastic on the front of the box had a very specific give to it when you pushed!).

How adorable! My favorite horse toys growing up were definitely my My Little Pony hand-me-downs from my sister. I loved that I had a little barn that doubled as a carrying case for them! willardpower@gmail.com

My favorite horse toy(s) of my youth were and still are my Breyers! I would play for literally DAYS (except for eating and sleeping) with my herd -- my grandfather built me a complete stable complex including a shedrow barn with tack room and removable roof, two sets of box stalls with sliding doors, a run in shed, and a trailer, and i even had a doll house to go with it so my brenda breyer's had a place to sleep! I got breyers for every important occasion and bought them with my own money when I had it -- i still have the majority of my childhood collection and cherish every single one of them. They brought (and continue to bring) me such joy!

I had 'pony' a beige stuffed horse music box I slept with every night until the stuffing was coming out of her hooves. Mom stitched the hooves back together again many, many times until they were just thread. I never did give her up, she's in a display case with my horse collection to be forever loved. 55 and still in love with horses. morganhrs@gmail.com

My first "horse to ride" was my mother's suitcase. She fixed it up with "reins" and "stirrups" (I put my feet "in the strings") and I'd bang my legs on the sides to make the horse "go" (and of course, it didn't "go" anywhere). As for toy horses, I still have the plastic "Trigger" with removable western saddle; it was, if I remember correctly, the forerunner to Breyer. The horse is probably 65 years old and in perfect condition (as is the saddle ;o) horsenwriter@aol.com

My favorite horse toy was my sister! We would have wraps on our legs and I would lead her or send her over jumps we made in the yard. She even jumped through a silver hula hoop. Our fun was accompanied by whinnies and clop clop noises we made with out feet on the pavement or voices if we performing in the yard! unfmpth@yahoo.com